The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
Virtual environments are useful in providing various interactive environments, such as interactive gaming environments (e.g., virtual 3D role-playing game, etc.), interactive training environments (e.g., a driving training, an aviation training, a military training, etc.), and interactive marketing environments (e.g., a virtual dressing room, etc.). Unfortunately, such virtual environments require extensive work to develop virtual content and considerable expense to deploy the content in varied environments. Further, the resulting developed content is purpose-built for a specific deployment, which renders the developed content unusable for other environments.
Others have put forth effort toward developing systems and methods for providing a virtual environment that can be modified by chroma key content. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,528,890 to Staker titled “Interactive system and method for video compositing” issued in May 5, 2009, discusses a system and a chroma key mixer device that generates a composite image by combining a real-time image, including modified real-time images, superimposed onto a prerecorded image. Staker's system enables a user to overlay an image taken from the user's video recorder onto video footage that the user is watching. Thus, Staker's system allows a user to virtually “insert” himself or herself into a video game and interact with objects within the video game environment. However, Staker only discusses overlaying real object images onto prerecorded video streams, where the object images are specifically purpose-built for video game deployment.
In another example, U.S. patent application 2005/0099603 to Thomas titled “Virtual studio system,” published in May 12, 2005, discusses a method of rendering an image to a participant in a studio according to an estimate of the viewpoint of the participant. The participant's viewpoint is calculated based an estimate of position of a body portion of the participant and a physical relationship of the body portion to the eyes of the participant. Thomas further discusses that the image can be superimposed on a static object or on a movable object so that any physical object can be superimposed with a graphic or can be replaced with a virtual object. However, Thomas's disclosure is limited to project pre-selected, purpose-built images superimposed onto a background object.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 8,395,711 to Oz titled “Method and system for fusing video streams” issued in Mar. 12, 2013, discusses a method for converting video streams of a scene to video streams fitting a viewpoint configuration obtained from calculation of parameters. Oz further discusses a step of integrating the scene into the video stream of a certain scene associated with the viewpoint configuration. However, Oz's chroma key content is limited to image content captured by adjacent video cameras.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,040,361 to Bachelder titled “Systems and methods for combining virtual and real-time physical environment,” issued in Oct. 18, 2011, discusses systems and methods for combining captured real-time video data and real-time 3D environment into a single scene using a chroma key process. Bachelder further discusses a field of view visual system by using motion cueing systems to account for user position and orientation, which would allow the virtual image to move in response to a user's movement or other virtual movements. However, Bachelder's system fails to discuss a system that manages and obtains chroma key content based on the object attributes or contextual trigger from the real-time 3D environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,059,889 to Kobayashi titled “Position and orientation measurement apparatus and control method thereof” issued Nov. 15, 2011, discusses an apparatus for measuring the position and orientation of an image-capturing apparatus, which is used to capture an image of a measurement object. Kobayashi extrapolates the position and orientation of a measurement object from a captured two dimensional image, and uses a chroma-key composition apparatus to composite the captured measurement object superimposed virtual CG objects. Kobayashi also fails to discuss a system that manages and obtains chroma key content based on the object attributes or contextual trigger from the real-time 3D environment.
In some cases, a user can require different types of chroma key content based on different object attributes of the 3D environment. In other cases, different types of chroma key content would be needed based on the context of the 3D environment. Thus, a user of virtual environment would benefit to have a multi-purpose virtual environment if the user can utilize a system to obtain chroma key content based on the contextual trigger or object attributes of the 3D environment.
Thus, there is still a need for system, device, and method capable of managing chroma key content, which includes obtaining chroma key content based on the object attributes or contextual triggers from the real-time 3D environment.